We say goodbye to Fiorentina’s championship with a success that does not make us happy. A clear success that indicates the limits of a season and certifies the end of a cycle. The Viola finish the championship with 60 points. A score that with one more point would have led the Viola to play in the Europa League. Instead, after losing the final in Athens, the Viola will once again play in the Conference. The match you didn’t expect took place in Bergamo. Atalanta had to win to get third place, Fiorentina would have had to play the classic useless match at the end of the season.
The unpredictability of football gave us a fun match full of goals (five), good ideas and healthy competitive spirit between two teams who honored this match played at the end of the championship in the best possible way. More Fiorentina than Atalanta in a match which in the Viola’s success increases the bitterness for Wednesday’s defeat in Greece against a team far inferior to Atalanta which Fiorentina clearly defeated today.
It’s the day of farewells and balances. While waiting for a necessary re-foundation to play, we hope, a less fluctuating and disappointing season.
Atalanta, satiated with victories and glory, seeks the victory that would ensure third place. Fiorentina has no goals to achieve. The match should be played by the Bergamo players but the Viola broke the deadlock in the sixth minute with a header from Belotti. The match was lively and Atalanta equalized after six minutes. De Ketelaere verticalizes for Lookman who sprints deep and surpasses him with the dig in front of Martinelli. The match is exciting and in the 19th minute the Italian team takes the lead again. Another cross from the left, this time from Biraghi. Atalanta’s defense is firm, Nico Gonzalez arrives and with a volley he puts the Viola back in front. In the 32nd minute there was another equalizer with Scalvini scoring his first goal of this championship
The match is fun, with good plays and changes of direction. In added time Belotti scored twice. After a corner, the Atalanta defense rejects, the ball reaches Beltran who serves Belotti who puts it into the net.
At the start of the second half Fiorentina came close to scoring the fourth goal with Duncan who sprinted into the area in a regular position, tried to get around Carnesecchi by widening to the left but then finished on the outside of the net. At 10′ Lookman in the area, on the left, disorientates the opponent with a series of feints and swerves and then puts it in the center for Pasalic, who finishes powerfully onto the crossbar.
In the 20th minute, an incredible opportunity for Atalanta, with Miranchuk coming within a whisker of equalising. In the 27th minute, on a very long ball from midfield, Gonzalez, on the run, heads it from outside the area, finding a parable that Carnesecchi manages to cancel by lifting the ball over the crossbar.
In the 37th minute, a bad injury for Scalvini: Ikoné sprints to the left, the Italian defender tries to keep up with him but falls to the ground in great pain. In full injury time, the last chance for the Goddess with a header from Scamacca which Martinelli does well to deviate into a corner.
The game ends here. Fiorentina’s season ends. A season of light and shadow ended with defeat in the Conference and this bitter and useless victory.
Vincenzo Italiano spoke to DAZN: “We could have arrived in Bergamo with a fair prize because they have been three wonderful years. I’m leaving different from how I arrived, certainly improved and with enormous baggage thanks to the club, the boys and all the purple people that I will always carry in my heart. Even without the trophy it was a great journey. For me they have been three really positive years and I’m not talking about results but about the relationships that have been created. Football is amazing from this point of view. I get emotional because leaving Florence, leaving this bond, is not nice but this is football, we move forward and open new pages. The relationships created will remain forever. I gave everything, I gave my best and when you ask to go further it is right to go further. It is right to leave room for a new thought that can make Fiorentina grow further and that can bring joy to this square. We move forward, new scenarios and new pages open up in football.”
Fiorentina sporting director Daniele Pradè also spoke to DAZN at the end of the match won against Atalanta: “Great pain after the defeat in Athens. We must apologize to our fans who we did not thank. We had more than 10 thousand people in Athens who made enormous sacrifices to be there. I truly apologize on behalf of the whole company but, and I don’t want to find a justification, we have been overwhelmed by great pain and despair. We were not lucid after the defeat of the third consecutive final.
I hug the Fiorentina fans one by one and we are sorry for not having given a trophy to ourselves, to Commisso, to the Barone family and to all the fans. We spent 10 moving minutes in the locker room. We went on a journey with Vincenzo Italiano, a man who until Friday at 11 in the morning we hoped we could continue together and I am convinced that if we had won the Cup everything would have changed. Today we part ways professionally but we will not part ways on a human level.
We will lose a lot without Italiano and I really wish him the best. The new Fiorentina? We have clear ideas, we are a very ambitious company, we have a strong president and we want to improve.”
ATALANTA-FIORENTINA 2-3
Atalanta (3-4-2-1): Carnesecchi; Toloi (29′ st Djimsiti), Hien, Scalvini (39′ st Hateboer); Holm (12′ st Miranchuk), Ederson, Pasalic, Ruggeri; Koopmeiners; De Ketelaere (29′ st El Bilal), Lookman (11′ st Scamacca). Available: Musso, Rossi, Bakker, Adopo, Mendicino, Zappacosta. All.: Gasperini
Fiorentina (4-2-3-1): Martinelli; Kayode (43′ st Faraoni), Martinez Quarta, Ranieri, Biraghi; Lopez, Duncan (32′ st Ikoné); Nico Gonzalez (43′ st Barak), Beltran (32′ st Infantino), Castrovilli (21′ st Kouame); Belotti. Available: Terracciano, Christensen, Dodo, Milenkovic, Bonaventura, Arthur, Comuzzo, Parisi. Coach: Italian Referee: Orsato
Scorers: 6′, 47′ pt Belotti (F), 12′ Lookman (A), 19′ Nico Gonzalez (F), 32′ Scalvini (A) Booked: Martinez Quarta (F), Ranieri (F)
